the story of the ink

[primroseshows]

URGE TO WRITE A SHERLOCK/ARASHI AU!FUSION FIC: 200%

Not exactly original (seeing as how I even wrote this idea before -- which wasn't even really mine, by the way, the idea, thank you aatash) but guys, BBC's Sherlock is warping my life like some kind of cosmic intervention, and with the last episode of season two coming up (!!!!! !!!!!), for some reason all I could think about was Nino and Ohno being Sherlock and John and having a happy ending instead of The Final Problem / The Empty House.


Nino is this acerbic, sharp-tongued, too-observant-for-his-own-good jerkface who likes to play games all day and is too lazy to hold a real job. Ohno is his slow-going and patient, good-natured, way-more-talented-than-his-face-might-suggest partner. Together they fight crime!! It was Ohno's suggestion, to start a detective agency, because he made some business cards for fun one day and Nino accidentally happened upon them and thought it was a hilarious way to live life. But the joke was on him, because he turned out to be really good at it and Ohno apparently had a natural talent with a various weaponry. The cases began as just a way to alleviate boredom and earn some cash, but as they got hired for more difficult ones, the pay got better and better until one day Nino looked at Ohno and said, "Ohmiya Industries is a shitty name, all things considered," and Ohno blinked and said back mildly, "Then you think of something better." But Nino couldn't, so the name stayed.

Sho is a doctor (a general practitioner who watches too many documentaries); he got to know Nino and Ohno after constant visits from the two of them in his walk-in clinic, and from then on occasionally gets called in to consult on their cases, and more often than not, is pulled in head first into more trouble than he ever cares to have. If Nino and Ohno weren't there to vouch for him in their statements, Sho probably could have been convicted for murder at least three times over the course of their friendship together. Admittedly, if Nino and Ohno hadn't gotten themselves into a horrible situation in the first place and called Sho for help, then Sho never would even have gotten implicated and would have been content to spend his evenings reading newspapers in front of a fire. Which is an activity that Sho misses doing, but not as much as he whines about. Sho actually likes the excitement, the thrill of the chase, but that's something he's still working on admitting to himself.

Aiba is a newly recruited cop, with a heart of gold and the speed of a cheetah, and he wants to prove himself to the world. He believes that people are inherently good, everyone deserves second chances, and the law is there to protect, not to harm. He's watched Nino and Ohno from afar, when the police ask for Nino's professional opinion about certain cases, but they've never been officially introduced. Except one time he follows Nino and Ohno around on the case and blows their cover. Nino ruins his life from then on in, until Aiba one day uses his miraculous intuition to find Ohno and Nino after one of their cases had gone terribly wrong and save both their lives by dumping a barrel of water on their would-be-murderer and then tossing his taser on him. Nino respects him after that, and if they need an officer to accompany them on cases, Aiba's the first one Nino asks for.

And Jun? Jun is a rich, influential, respected socialite, recently given responsibility to safekeep something extremely valuable to his family and his work, and unfortunately for him, he's just lost it. And this is where the story would start.

UGHHHHHHHH I want to write a legit mystery fic so BADLY it's stupid. This would require OCs though, and I can't do OCs, I really can't. DILEMMA!!!!! :F


click through for source; kazujun.tumblr

SIGH

Comments

[primroseshows.livejournal.com]

The stupid thing is that I actually started writing it? According to my files.... in February of last year? And then I realized I would need OCs up the wazoo so the idea puttered out. Back then I didn't have much concept besides 1) Jun lost something valuable, 2) He hires Ohno and Nino to find it. The document is filled with blanks I left empty because I was too lazy to do the necessary research, haha. Also, I thought Jun's character was too similar to how I wrote him for my Death Ray universe, and I didn't like that.


He's not a man who tolerates cliches in his life if he can help it, but he can find no other way to describe his current situation other than being caught between a rock and a hard place. A very large rock, and a very hard place. There is no leeway here, that much is transparent. And he's a man who is used to much leeway.

Lord Matsumoto Jun, for the first time in his life, curses the legacy behind his name and wishes that he had been born a commoner.

"Hey, it's not the end of the world yet," a friendly voice offers. Jun lifts his face from his hands and glares at the speaker as if he could set skin aflame -- this look alone conveys Jun's very obvious disagreement with that sentence. His servant, Shun, raises his hands in surrender.

"Sorry, was just trying to help. It's not like they're going to kill you, Jun."

"That would be nothing but a mercy at this point, and you know it," Jun snaps; he catches the flash of annoyance that crosses Shun's face, but Jun is in no mood to apologize for anything, and Shun's not one to be offended by Jun's temper.

"Look," Shun tries again, after a few more minutes of Jun forcing himself to breathe calmly -- the air tastes like gaseous dread, bitter and thick and suffocating, but if Jun can't control himself here, he's afraid he'll do something uncouth or hysterical, like, like scream or -- or, cry, or just run away--

Shun asks, "Why don't you just hire someone to find the jewel for you?"

Oh, yes, like the solution would be that easy. Jun thinks he would have to sell his soul for that. "Hire who?" he shoots back at Shun. "The police? Yes, because a large-scale investigation is just the publicity my family needs right before the inaguration, isn't it. The mafia? Oh, because they can be hired to comb the streets for the villian, and not make off with the prize. Enlist the public, then? Should I put out flyers? Ads? Make commercials?"

Shun shrugs, "I was thinking, like, a detective or something."

And now Jun really does want to cry. "Shun," he grits out, keeping his voice as steady as he can. "You do realize that all signs point to me killing that man, right? If I hired the secret service, it would be like walking into the jail cell myself."

"Yeah, I know. I meant, more like... a private detective agency."

"This isn't some movie, you idiot! I can't just call up some low-profile P.I. and tell him my sob story and expect him to dash around like Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery!"

Jun expects Shun to return his shout, or wilt back, or roll his eyes, or leave the room in exasperation or something, but strangely, Shun only grins.

"I guess you can't," he says. "But I can."

~

Not too far away, there is a ___________

This person ________________-.

He giggles.

~

TITLE
the case of the jade parrot

~

Rrrriiing.

Rrrriiing.

Rrrriiing.

"Oh-chan!" Nino shouts, tugging out one of his earbuds. "Pick up the phone!" He stuffs the bud back in and dives back into his video game.

Rrrriiing.

"Oh-chan!!" Nino shouts louder.

In reply, he hears a muffled, "I'm in the bathroom!" from upstairs. Nino sighs loudly and debates letting the phone ring until the person gives up -- no, he can't. The money. Nino pauses his game, and goes to pick up the phone.

"Hello, Ohmiya Detective Agency, at your service. We'll solve any problem with the right price, Ninomiya speaking."

"Nino, hi," says a very familiar voice. "How have you been?"

[primroseshows.livejournal.com]

Should have let it ring, Nino thinks. "Shun, I'm sorry, I'm still broke. Oh-chan took all of our monthly earnings and bought himself this incredibly ugly fishing lure that he swore would keep us overflowing with fish for the rest of our natural lives but he liked it too much to actually use it. and he put it in his pencil kit, of all things. I swear I'll pay you back next month, though."

"Uh, that's cool," Shun says. "That doesn't matter, it was just dinner. I called about something else. I've got a case for you."

"The last time you had a case for me ___________"

There's a pause on the line. "Damn, you remember that, huh?"

"I've got a scar on my left knee," Nino reminds him.

"Right. Sorry about that. But listen! This is a big one! Top-secret, no one is to know, reputations can be ruined, involves big money. Right up your alley, huh? Exciting stuff!"

Now it's Nino's turn to pause, but he remains skeptical. Shun's ideas of exciting stuff rarely coincide with Nino's (not many people's do). But it is true that Shun knows Nino better than about 99.9% of the population; Nino trusts that he'll be able to recognize if it were a mystery Nino could solve with his hands tied, eyes closed, and butt parked on the sofa.

"Go on," Nino allows.

"You know the Ming Li sculpture? The one just recovered from that excavation in Mongolia?"

Nino's mind whirs, spitting up facts. Ming Li: late ____ dynasty, _______ BC, sculpture of a monkey done in pale green jade, height one foot, diameter approximately 25
centimetres, appraised cost around 50 million USD. It was touring the Asian countries; there'd been articles announcing safe arrival of the antiquated treasure in Japan two weeks ago. Exhibition soon, likely at the reputable ____ Gallery, curator Matsumoto Jun, second-born child to the Jun family, _______. Shun had been his assistant/servant/chauffeur/whatever for the past three years, and now Shun was phoning Nino. Conclusion: some bad happened to the statue while it was under Matsumoto Jun's responsibility, something that the police nor news media has yet to discover.

"I know of it," Nino answers.

"Well, get this: it's been sto-- oh wait, I don't think this is something I should be saying over the phone, actually."

"Probably not, but I have the office phone line blocked in one direction so it can't be tapped. It's lame because I can't call out either, but I use my cell phone for that. Let me guess. Stolen, last night, in the museum currently preparing it for its exhibition that had been planned to be announced to the public within the next two to four days."

"...Right, uh. Exactly."

Boring. Theft is so predictable. "Catching burglars isn't really my preferred area of work, you know," Nino says. "Check the security footage, I'm sure the police will know what to do from there. I can consult, if you want, but all that running around, on the chase," Nino shudders. "No thanks." He's not so desperate for money, not just yet. HMM REWRITE THIS? bc ohno can do legwork...

"Should I expect the police to be understanding, then, when they see records of my boss killing a security guard in cold blood?" comes Shun's reply.

Ah.

"__"

"What's the pay?"

"Put it this way," Shun laughs. "Ohno could buy every ugly fishing lure in the world with this fee."

With his knack for perfect timing, Ohno sticks his head into the room's doorway, looking mildly interested. "Case for us?" he asks.

Nino grins.

~

Nino knows a lot about Matsumoto Jun. Addendum. Nino knows a lot about everyone and everything, but Matsumoto Jun is well-known to the general populace too. It would be difficult to find a single metropolitan person in Japan who did not have some kind of base knowledge about him. Ohno doesn't even need an introduction. This man is a celebrity in his own right; worse, he is beloved.

So it stands to reason that whatever ill-themed activity that could be associated with Matsumoto Jun would unquestionably make its way to online news bulletins within the hour of discovery, and then to the front page of newspapers the following morning.

AND THEN IT ABRUPTLY CHANGES TO THE PLOT NOTES OF A SHERLOCK FIC THAT NEVER ENDED UP BEING WRITTEN; I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED

[thevignette.livejournal.com]

well i really feel you on the OC thing because i can't write convincing OC's to save my life. i hope you eventually get around to writing this though, it looks so incredibly promising :) and can i just add that i love your nino. so much.

[primroseshows.livejournal.com]

T______T I ADORE YOU